Railroad-frog



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PERRY P. MERRIMAN, OFIIARDEEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA.

RAILROAD-FROG.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 464,032,dated December1, 1891.

Application filed January 19, 1891. Serial No. 378,324. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PERRY P. MERRIMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Hardeeville, in the county of Beaufort and State of SouthOarolina,have invented certain new and useful Improvements inRailroad-Frogs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

The special object of the invention is to improve railroad-frogs so asto lessen the chances of derailment when cars are passing from the maintrack to a branch on e, or the reverse.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a plan view; and Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7,detail views, which will be particularly described hereinafter.

In the drawings, A A represent the rails of a railroad-track, which arefixed, unbroken by frog or switch rails, and without any guardrailbetween them, so that trains of cars may run at any desired speed overthem without danger of accident or derailment.

B B represent the branch rails, in which I I make the usual switch-railO O to be operated by the mechanism D E F. I provide the shaft E withthree cranks e 6 e so as to simultaneously actuate the frog and switchrails, the shaft being turned back and forth by the ordinary lever E inthe bearings F G. I make the shaft E in three sections and connect themby the intermediate blocks M M, which turn with the shaft.

The object whichI have in viewin making shaft E in sections is to allowthe head to be shortened from a standard or theoretical one which hasbeen adopted by many roads. The numbers of frogs range from four totwelve, and the length of the shaft-rod E is different with each number.Hence it is important to have a maximum shaft in a middle and two outersections, as the latter can be conveniently cut to shorten it.

G G are the middlebearings of the shaft E, bolted to a turn-plate g,connected by a dovetail joint with the base-plate g, the turnand beinginserted or removed by taking ofi the detachable piece of thebase-plate. In this way I give a certain horizontal play to the shaft Eas it turns to lessen the torsional strain thereon. The crank e isjointed to the eye of a rod H, which is adj ustably connected with thefrog-rail I by means of its end thread and a nut I, pivoted to saidrail. I may use one or more additional rods J, jointed at j, to connectthe shaft with the frog-rail, if deemed expedient. I pivot the rail I ati, so that the meeting ends of the frog-rail and rail B may make asquare joint, as shown at 70 is, so as to enable the frog-rail as it ismoved to clear away the ice or' other obstruction in its path foritself. I may sometimes use the short diagonal joint shown in Fig. 2 ofthe drawings; but it does not so perfectly clear its pathway to thejoint at any time, and is better adapted to its purpose in summer thanin Winter.

K is the guard-rail, which I arrange within and near the outside branchrail B, opposite to the frog-rail, so as to take a part of the strain onthe frog and switch mechanism when the cars are passing.

L is a block, made preferably of metal and provided with a shoulderbehind which the end of the switch-frog railI rests, so as not to bestruckby the pilot,brake-rods,orbrake-beams, which are liable to catchunder the end of the frog-rail. I also make a side flange Z, whichserves as a stop or limitation of its backward movement, and an inclineZ, up which the pilot, brake-rods, or brake-beams may slide and passover the end of the frog-rail. The frog rail I rises upwardly from itspivot 46 to its'free end it, crosses the main track-rail A, and meetsthe equally high end 70' of the branch rail B, while the ends 70 k arerabbeted, respectively, on top and underneath to form a lap-joint, asshown in Fig. 7 of the drawings, thus making a solid support for thecar-wheel at the ends 70 7c and one not liable to separate from anycause.

That I claim as new, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is'

plate being arc-shaped on two opposite edges 1. The combination, withthe turn-shaft bearings G G, of the plate 9, arranged to turn in abase-plate g, as and for the purpose described.

2. The switch-rail Iand branch rail B, surface-jointed at the meetingends 75 k to enable the end 70 to sweep all obstructions from its pathand in front of the end 71;, thus leavin g the ends 7a 7a evenly alignedwith nothing jammed between them. to

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

PERRY P. MERRIMAN.

Witnesses:

A. RUPPERT,

HENRY J. ENNIs.

